"The role of African states today is increasing in the global economy. Africa is a continent with great potential that has yet to be fully unlocked. A continent whose population is approaching one and a half billion people," she said during the plenary session of the Second International Parliamentary Conference "Russia – Africa".
In her opinion, this is "a completely objective and natural trend that the countries of the collective West, led by the United States, do not want to reckon with."
"The West is trying at all costs to maintain its exclusivity and the role of the world hegemon, which for objective, historical reasons are becoming a thing of the past," she stressed.
Matviyenko added that Western countries "resort to well-known means of deterrence: sanctions, threats, blackmail, double standards and blatant hypocrisy."